Deeplinks Blog posts about International

In 2011, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak promised that Malaysia would never censor the Internet. Speaking at the first Malaysian—ASEAN Regional Bloggers Conference, Najib said: “I have no doubts whatsoever that Malaysia has one of the liveliest blogospheres in the world. And definitely one of the freest if not the most free…[former Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad] made the promise to the world that Malaysia would never censor the Internet. My government is fully committed to that wisdom. We intend to keep his word.”

Four years later, beleaguered by allegations that $700 million in funds were suspiciously transferred from a Malaysian state investment fund into his personal bank account, Najib went back on that promise.

Buenos Aires is currently in the middle of electing its mayor and city council. With a first round that took place on July 5th, and a second round due on July 19th, the election is the first time Argentina's capital city has used an electronic voting system called Vot.ar, created by local company Magic Software Argentina (MSA).

“Kenya to require users of public Wi-Fi to register with government,” reads a July 1 Ars Technica headline. At first glance, the east African country’s proposed regulations appeared to extend their reach beyond even that broad subset of Kenyan Internet users. According to quotes from officials included in the article, the new rules would require all users of any device with wireless networking capabilities, not just public Wi-Fi routers, to register their equipment with either their Internet service providers or the Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC).

Even correcting for what seems to be overbroad interpretation of the final regulations, Kenya's plans risk invading the privacy of the majority of its non-mobile Internet users, as well as chasing legitimate anonymous speakers from the country's Internet.